STORY YOUMISSED
Calumet City police detectives are tracking a group of organized thieves who utilized a vehicle to deliberately ram into a south suburban gas station minimart early Monday morning.
The high-impact property breach occurred during the early dawn hours at the Mobil service station located at the intersection of East Sibley Boulevard and Prairie Avenue.
WATCH VIDEO BELOW.
This specific commercial intersection sits directly adjacent to the heavily trafficked lanes of the Bishop Ford Freeway corridor.
Internal and external surveillance video captured the entire incident, revealing a highly coordinated sequence of events executed by multiple suspects.
The broadcasted security footage shows the primary suspect vehicle reversing at a high rate of speed directly into the front glass facade of the minimart.
The massive mechanical force of the reversing vehicle completely shattered the reinforced security glass panes and buckled the metal structural frames of the building entrance.
Once the structural perimeter was breached, a group of individuals jumped out of the vehicles to execute the next phase of the property theft.
Surveillance camera feeds from inside the store show the group working together to dislodge a heavy commercial machine from the floor layout.
The suspects hoisted the heavy machinery items through the newly created structural opening and threw the unit directly into the cargo hold of a second waiting vehicle.
The entire theft operation took only a few minutes to complete before both suspect vehicles accelerated rapidly away from the broken storefront scene.
Local patrol units arrived at the Sibley Boulevard location shortly after automated commercial alarms flagged the forced entry to regional dispatchers.
Responding officers found a trail of shattered glass debris, twisted structural metal, and overturned merchandise scattered across the floor of the local establishment.
Suburban business leaders along the Sibley Boulevard corridor expressed immediate concerns regarding an emerging pattern of vehicle-ramming commercial thefts across the region.
Community safety advocates are currently urging local nighttime business operators to install heavy steel bollards in front of glass entryways to physically prevent vehicle access.
The Calumet City Police Department has increased early morning tracking patrols around isolated retail plazas and gas stations situated close to local highway exit ramps.
Store management staff spent the morning hours assessing the total financial cost of the stolen machinery and surveying the widespread structural damage done to the building walls.
Investigators are currently analyzing the recovered digital surveillance files to pull definitive physical descriptions of the suspects and locate visible license plate data.
Authorities request that any motorist who witnessed suspicious vehicle movements near Sibley Boulevard and the Bishop Ford Freeway around dawn call the Calumet City Police Department at (708) 868-2500.
Anonymous tips regarding the identities of the smash-and-grab group can also be submitted to regional investigators through the regional digital reporting system.
